ESSAY TOPIC: Air pollution: A significant cause of morbidity and mortality especially in many large cities of the developing world.
ABSTRACT
Ambient and indoor air pollutants have been a major source of concern all over the world, especially in major cities of developing countries due to increasing need for transportation, industrial development and fuels for household uses by an increasing population of dwellers. These pollutants, which majorly include particulate matter and gaseous pollutants, cause significant morbid conditions ranging in severity from eye irritation to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases with mortality cases at extremes. The growing threat of these pollutants in the face of rapid urbanization therefore calls
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Transportation, industrial activities and electricity generation have been enumerated by authors as some of the major activities that introduce air pollution in Lagos-Nigeria and West African countries generally (Obioh et al., 1992; Olowoporoku, 2011). Hopkins et al. (2009) posited that emissions in Lagos are consistent with estimates for other developing megacities and are attributed to the evaporation of fuels, mobile combustion and natural gas emissions. The authors further maintained that these observations and the predicted future population growth will position Lagos as one of the most polluting cities in the world unless adequate policy measures are implemented.
China is another developing country that has been pointed to as perhaps having the worst air pollution level in the world (Kan et al., 2011). This heavy air pollution status has been reported to originate from the use of coal as major energy source, with coal smoke, suspended particulate matter and sulfur dioxide as the predominant principal air pollutants (Chen et al., 2011).
Figure 3: NOx emission sources in Beijing and in China.
Source: C.F. You and X.C. Xu (2010)
In Chinese large cities, however, with the rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles, Chen reported that air pollution has gradually changed from the conventional coal combustion type to the mixed coal combustion/ motor vehicle emission type. In Asia, increasing urbanization and per
Air pollution is basically when has become a problem in China. It has caused problems to ones health. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, such fine particles can cause asthma, bronchitis, and acute and chronic respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath and painful breathing, and may also lead to premature death. China does not go a day without one dying fro air pollution. Last year 7 million people die annually because of exposure to polluted air (The World health Organization). China's air pollution has triggered ones asthma. It has also cause ones to develop lung cancer, which could be very deadly.
Chapter 2: Beginnings of English America, 1607- 1660 English colonists established Jamestown( “sixty miles inland on the the James River”) in order to protect themselves from any Spanish warships. Named specifically for the king of England, although the voyage was not promoted by the king or queen/ government, but was funded by the Virginia Company. The Virginia Company was more intrigued in exploiting the land’s natural resources than establishing a society.
Air pollution continues to be a significant problem in the city of Birmingham, as it has been for decades. No one enjoys walking the streets of Birmingham only to taste or smell the smoke and particulates in the air, not to mention the damaging effects to one’s health. Fortunately, improvements have been made; forty years ago, residents of Birmingham could not even see the skyline due to the immense amounts of particulates in the air, but now the skyline is visible on a daily basis. The noticeable improvement indicates the progress that has been made over the years, but there is still plenty of room for much needed improvement. Birmingham’s air quality is among some of the worst in the United States, but there are several feasible and
“Vehicle emissions contribute to the formation of smog. ‘Nitrogen Oxide’ and ‘volatile organic compounds’ in vehicle emissions can react to form ‘ground level ozone’; this is a secondary pollutant in the lower atmosphere, where its formation can be enhance by other pollutants , and its highly toxic at levels above 0.1 parts per million (p.p.m). A number of studies have shown that pollutant exposures near major roadways are greater than for other areas in cities. Other studies have linked increased exposure to an increased prevalence of a wide variety of illnesses including asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia and heart disease. Nitrogen oxide can irritate airways,
Beijing, China has a coal mining history of nearly 800 and some odd years. This has been a major air pollutant and the main reason for it is because its economy has grown substantially in the last 30 years. Worldwide, there are twenty cities with the highest, worst air pollution, sixteen of those cities are within China alone. The main causes of Beijing’s air pollution can be pointed to several factors. Large economical growth, an increase in vehicles on the roads, growth in population, and manufacturing. China has also experienced major economic growth with a large rise in Gross Domestic Product. This increase can be connected with pollution. Vehicles are just one contributor to pollution which we will discuss later in this paper.
Human activities could have important implications of air pollution in Beijing. Initially, some Chinese traditions are responsible for the problem. The celebration of Lantern Festival with fire works and firecrackers is one of the best examples. According to Wang et.al. (2007), some primary and secondary components such as Ba, K, Sr, Pb, Mg were over five times higher than in the normal days during the lantern festival in 2006 and these components are the significant part of the air pollution. Urbanisation of Beijing, in addition, is a vital reason of the problem. As urbanisation progressing, more factories were built and ran, some of which emitted poison gases and polluted the air. What makes matter worse, urbanisation also increase the usage of vehicles in Beijing and lots of components which can polluted air due to the burning of fossil fuels. Further more, other human activities including land clearing for
In the past decade, the severe air pollution problem in fast developing countries, particularly in China, has caused highly social and scientific attention. In 2014, 92 % of the world population are exposed over to the WHO Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) PM2.5 concentration level of 10 μg/m3 (World Health Organization, 2016). Ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution ranked as the third leading risk factor in India and Nepal, and ranked as the fifth in China (GBD 2015 Risk Factors Collaborators, 2016). In 2012, about 3 million deaths globally were attributed solely to ambient air pollution, and around 87% of it occurred in low- and middle-income countries (World Health Organization, 2016).
Air pollution is one of the biggest causes of environmental impact in any region. Therefore, air quality needs to be evaluated and maintained for avoiding health hazards. According to WHO, air pollution claims more than 2.4 million lives each year (WHO, 2002). Cities have to face more air pollution problems as compared to
As the exploration of the industrial development and increased speed of the urban sprawl in Beijing, many severe environmental issues attribute mainly to the anthropocentric activities have been come out of the scene. One of them is the air pollution. Air pollution has been regarded as the most severe environment issue in China since it has already threatened to physical health, especially for the respiratory tract and lung. “In January 2013, Beijing experienced historical heavy air pollution. In this particular month, very few days were observed with blue sky.” (Lijian Han et.al., 2015) According to the analysis of the driving factors, “the population grew fast, and energy consumption and the number of vehicles increased rapidly” (Ju Zhang et.al., 2010), these factors add together can make the air quality worse than any one of them separately can. Firstly, it has been an undoubted truth that more and more people originally lived in rural has been moved to core urban of Beijing since there are more opportunities in there. Therefore, the huge explosion of urban population with more energy release and more CO2 exhalation is seen as an inevitably primary factor causing the bad air quality. What’s more, as the population
Air pollution has been recognized as a major threat to environmental health, and the effects that it can have on the population are extremely varied. In the environmental aspects, air
Air pollution by definition, is the presence in or introduction into the air of a substance which has harmful or poisonous effects. Beijing is a major Chinese city that endures air pollution significantly. A study on the global burden of disease found that outdoor air pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in China each year (Chemical & Engineering News,2017). As China is the world's second largest economy behind the United States, it is most definitely under the influence of globalization. Globalization causes industrialization, a process that will inevitably create pollution.70% of air pollution in China is from the tailpipes of automobiles (Conserve Energy Future, 2017). Thus, the introduction of advanced transportation brought by globalization has adversely affected China's atmosphere.
As mentioned in Diamond’s book, Collapse, China has been facing and is still facing air pollution and environmental damages. The air pollution crisis in China is caused mainly by their large economic boom causing more factories, vehicles, and overpopulation (Clark, et al.). “Pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide are rising due to the increasing numbers of motor vehicles and the coal- dominated energy generation” (Diamond 363). Because of the immediate effects of air pollution such as the smog that is visible to citizens in China, many citizens wear face masks every day to protect themselves and their health. Diamond also mentions the fact that because China has the worst environmental damages such as air pollution, this might affect the rest of the world.
Its economic rise has come with a deadly cost. China is the world’s largest source of carbon emissions, and the air quality of many of its major cities fails to meet international health standards. Coal is largely to blame for the degradation of chinese air quality, as China is the world’s largest coal producer and accounts for about half of global consumption. There were also a record 17 million new cars on the road in 2014, further contributing to China’s high emissions. In addition to poor air quality, serious water contamination and scarcity have increased land degradation.
As the world population, the use of nonrenewable resources, and development of industrial technology continues to grow, the more harmful air pollution gets. Air pollution is caused by all of these factors, and more. While fossil fuel sources continue to diminish, there is an increasing interest in the use of renewable technologies, such as the air, water, and sun. China is one of the many countries in the world suffering from air pollution due to household and industrial use of fossil fuels and a massive population. Air pollution also has many negative impacts on human health and the environment. Although there are many solutions to these problems, it is the matter of the people and government knowing about these problems and solutions and
Air, is one of the most substantial source to mankind and our planet. While it exists, so does everything else along. However, in today’s epidemic, there has been certain factors that have increased in understanding whether the air we breathe today is healthy or not? Is it doing more harm than we thought? In other words, the health risks against air pollution have risen in the past few decades; all from what you may ask? Well, it could be for various factors and evaluations; either environmental or materialistic. Pollution is a major public health crisis in the world. (Friis, 2012). This is one of the conflicts that contribute to various aspects of an individual’s life, whether they may realize it or not. In this paper will include the sources that cause pollution with the effects it cause as well as policies on the regulation of air pollution.